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Bay Web Design

Ecommerce Web Sites

WooCommerce - Excellence in shopping cart solutions

Thinking about selling your products or services online?

Unsure about where to start? It’s simpler than it seems.

E-Commerce enables a business to sell without the need to have an actual shop. There are some businesses that sell both online and have a shop outside the internet as well. However more and more businesses are being created to specifically work only online.

What is an E-Commerce shopping cart?

From the web site owner’s side, a shopping cart provides an increasingly sophisticated array of tools to sell and market products to the online buyer. These tools enable the business owner to

easily add new products and associated images

enter stock levels and enable automatic low stock warnings

create discount coupons

have a buyer sign up to a mailing list for future notifications

track sales and mark them as processed when complete

have an ordering system that connects directly to NZ Post online to automatically calculate shipping costs

create shipping structures that handle a variety of product scenarios

take CC payments automatically without the need for a merchant account

The benefits of selling online

Buying habits without doubt have changed in the last decade. People can and do trust buying online. It’s also quick and fast allowing a buyer to “window shop” at a number of online locations without having to leave home. While some may lament the fast pace of todays world, there is no doubt that online shopping fits neatly into the new retail structure. Easeful buying from any location is the new normal.

The decrease in land based premises

One result of the increase in online shops is the decrease in land based shops. In NZ and world-wide we are all familiar with seeing increasing amounts of vacant shops in our city centres. Many businesses have closed due to online sales eroding their customer base. Some have adapted by selling both on and offline. Many have transitioned from the combined approach to eventually moving entirely online and closing the land based shop.

Reduced overheads

An online shop does not have to pay a lease for premises and it’s associated overheads. This makes start-up and ongoing costs much more affordable compared to operating from a leased business location. While the initial price of an E-Commerce web site may seem steep for some, compared to operating a traditional shop, the costs are minimal.